Monday, October 16, 2017

It hardly seems possible that my show "Portraits and Memories: Legacies of Service" has been on exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum for six weeks and will be de-installed in two weeks. So much has happened during the show with the Artist Reception on August 24, then the Creative Community Workshop "That Reminds Me" on September 30, the Chicago Women's Caucus for Art visited the show on October 14 for an Artist Talk and gallery tour, and then Friday, October 20 I will be on a panel with Dr. Anna Bretschneider, Chief, Hines VA Education Service, and three veterans, Virigl Mathis, Bill Crist and Adam Navarro Lowery. The title of the panel discussion is "Intersection of Experiences".
For now I will share photos from the opening reception on August 24.

The
National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) is proud to present its upcoming
exhibition, Portraits and Memories: Legacies of Service by Chicago-area
artist Jeanine Hill­-Soldner. The exhibit will showcase two series of oil
paintings: Portraits of American Veterans, and Memories of an Era:
Reflections of Our Time.

Portraits
and Memories: Legacies of Service presents a unique perspective on an
experience of military service that is often overlooked–that of the spouse,
parent, sibling, or child of an active duty service member or veteran. The
juxtaposition of veteran portraits with scenes of family life highlights an
integral aspect of military culture that is rarely explored. Jeanine Hill­-Soldner
grew up in a military family. Her father, Sgt. Maj. Dan L. Hill, was a 30­-year
U.S. Marine Corps Veteran who served in WWII, Korea, and completed twotours in
Vietnam. After he passed away, the artist felt compelled to create work that
honored his service and experiences along with those of other military veterans
and members of their communities. Personal stories and memory are integral to
her work as Hill­-Soldner links the experiences of veterans and those of their
loved ones through a poignant visual program.

Portraits
of American Veterans

The
creation of Portraits of American Veterans began in 2009 and features
the likenesses of 24 veterans who sat in the artist’s studio as she sketched
and painted the initial impression of each person. Each veteran was asked to
bring significant objects from their military experience with them, and to
share memories of their service as Hill­-Soldner painted which further aided in
the capturing of each individual’s personality

.

Memories
of an Era: Reflections of Our Time

The
paintings in this series are derived from family photographs taken near the
Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station in Oahu, Hawaii during Dan L. Hill’s first
tour in Vietnam, paired with photos he took himself while deployed. In each
painting, scenes of the everyday life of the women and children of the Hill
family are depicted alongside the daily realities of war featuring the men of
the Marine Third Reconnaissance Battalion, Bravo Company. Together these
paintings develop a chronicle that reaches across time and space to connect
events as they may have occurred simultaneously, many miles apart. These works
underline the significance of memory and illustrate how experiences shape
veterans, their families, and military communities as a whole.

Jeanine
Hill­-Soldner’s work offers an important perspective on war as seen through the
eyes of the children and spouses of service members. Side by side these two
series of paintings offer a glimpse into the way in which military service has
both defined the artist’s life, and driven decades of contemplation about the
impact that war has had on hers and others’ lives.

Portraits and
Memories: Legacies of Service will be on display beginning Tuesday,August 22nd through Saturday, October 28th,
2017 with an

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Yes, I marched in the Women's March on January 21 in Chicago. This is my interpretation of the day in oil on canvas 40"x 40" titled "An American Moment"

I haven't been keeping up with social media, blogging and updating my web site lately. The day to day studio work and living in this crazy world have kept me busy and not motivated to concern myself with the on-line world.

I have included in the most recent musing a post that I wrote last month but did not publish........

My last post was from November, so I am a bit behind on blogging. Life is good and always moving forward. It seems like my attention was constantly turned to the POTUS election. Yes, I know too much in the press and social media, and that is exactly why my artist eyes have been absorbed in the garishly visual and noisy spectacle. Reading and painting have always been my way of coping to understand and figure out the logic, or lack thereof, that propels the country I love into a spiral of confusion and "us and them" (ie. dems vs repubs). Well to say the least, like many artists, when I am looking for solace or answers I look to literature, art, and the musings of great authors of the past who recorded the spectacles of their times in prose and or paint. You see art is gives us meaning and beyond sound bites, tweets and talking heads who are faker than their "fake news".

About Me

Greetings and welcome. I want to share with you my lifelong passion for art, art education, art history and most of all painting. Visitors entering my studio will find paintings and mixed media works in various stages of progress. I am always thinking and writing about my work with a strong emphasis on connecting ideas and experiences of everyday life. My work is continuously nourished through interests and activly engaging in the world through exploring history, literature, music, worldwide travels, and the vastness of human creativity throughout time.
I hold a Bachelors of Art in Art Education from University of Florida and a Masters of Art in Art Education from University of Illinois and have continued my education throughout my life. As a professional artist and teacher, the best of both worlds come together in my art and my teaching.

"Portraits of American Veterans Project" 2011

The "Portraits of American Veterans Project" has exhibited regionally and nationally. This is the stunning Sage Gallery locate in the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park in Crystal Lake. The portraits require a large galllery and the Sage is perfect for showing each painting and each Veteran's story at their best. The "Portraits of American Veterans Project" has also exhibited at Northern Trust Bank in Chicago, GE Diversity Fine Art Gallery in Fairfield Conn. and other venues in the Chicago area.